Discounting senior citizens

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Editor CHERYL CRUZ Desk Editor PATRICK PANGILINAN Busines Editor NIDA A. BUENAFE Sports Editor RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete MAJA P. DELY Advertising Coordinator

CARLOS ANTONIO L. LEONARDIA Administrative Officer

The general manager of the Siliman University Cooperative was recently sentenced up to three years in prison and fined P50,000 for refusing to give the mandatory 20 percent senior citizen discount to one who bought soft drinks.

Senior citizen Manuel Utzurrum Jr. filed a complaint against the Roberto Estoconing for refusing to grant the senior citizen discount when the former bought soft drinks eight times in 2011. Uzturrum filed a complaint before the Office of the Senior Citizens Affairs and the Barangay head after his three letters to the general manager of the SU Coop didn’t get a reply. The Municipal Court found the general manager guilty and after an appeal, Judge Roderick Maxino of the Regional Trial Court affirmed the decision that found Estoconing guilty.

Senior citizens and certain establishments that have been trying to find loopholes to skirt the Expanded Senior Citizen Act (RA 9994) that provides discounts and VAT exemptions to Filipinos aged 60 or older have been arguing over their own interpretations of the privilege for years. There have been arguments over double discounts and the need for an official senior citizen card for the discounts to be claimed.

Most large commercial establishments and stores have instituted systems to make it easier for senior citizens to claim their discount while discouraging its abuse. It is the small stores, like in this case the SU Coop store that was unable to give a senior citizen discount for soft drinks, that aren’t as quick to adapt, making it difficult for both the senior citizens and the shopkeepers to process the discounts. This is something those store owners have to adapt to if they do not want to meet the same fate as the general manager of the SU Coop.

This decision by the court in Dumaguete favoring senior citizens hopefully clears up matters as well as provides a gentle reminder to all the other establishments, regardless of size or nature, on the consequences of ignoring the law as far as senior citizens are concerned.  We hope this is the last time a senior citizen has to go to court over a simple discount.*